Marketing

Combatting Against Negative Online Influences

May 11th, 2009 by Matt Haff

I read a recent post about How to Make Crack Cocaine, Bombs, and Commit Suicide and how churches should be using their resources to prevent people from using this kind of information.

I think that this is a great point and churches need to focus on where people who hurt go and meet them there if at all possible. I completely agree with everything said in this article, however the trick is how do we do it? I know SEO, marketing and web design so I have a few thoughts on how to accomplish this.

1. Use a microsite – If you want to grab their attention, then you’re going to want to have a look and feel that these people can connect to. Most likely this will not go along with what your church members like.

2. DO NOT link to it from your church website – This can cause search engines to think that your website has to do with this stuff and that is something you don’t want happening. Leave your website for info to church goers.

3. Paid Advertising – Chances of you getting high rankings in the search engines for this stuff is SLIM TO NONE. If you do a search for “how to kill yourself” or “ways to commit suicide” you’ll find there are over 3 million sites talking about this. It would take months of SEO for you to begin competing with them. Why not spend $.25/click or less to have a paid advertisement on Google that appears at the top just about every time with NO SEO needed?

4. Keep it relevant – If you’re going to try and combat this stuff then you’re going to need to have something relevant to what they are going through. Don’t just throw out scripture, use compelling graphics, a Godly view of things and throw in a scripture or two of not how it is WRONG but how God offers a WAY OUT.